Roll Call

The House : Playboy in Braille

The House voted, 216 for and 193 against, to exclude Playboy magazine from a Library of Congress program that reproduces about three dozen magazines in Braille for the benefit of the blind. The vote deleted $103,000 for the Playboy translation from the library's fiscal 1986 budget. It occurred during debate on the 1986 legislative branch appropriations bill (HR 2942) that was passed and sent to the Senate.

Sponsor Chalmers Wylie (R-Ohio) said "reproducing Playboy in Braille does not have literary merit and is not a good use of the taxpayers' money."

By a vote of 207 for and 219 against, the House rejected an amendment to freeze the fiscal 1986 authorization for clean water programs at the 1985 level of $2.6 billion. The House went on to approve 1986 spending of more than $4.6 billion under the legislation (HR 8), which was sent to the Senate.

This marked the House's first failure in eight attempts this year to freeze a major 1986 spending bill, giving it an .875 batting average in the budget-cutting venture.

Freeze advocates say their approach is necessary because the House is too undisciplined to reduce the deficit through the normal budget process.

The bill's chief mission is to provide federal grants to communities for sewage treatment construction. Also, it combats pollution caused by urban and agricultural water runoffs, and seeks to cleanse rivers and lakes of stationary toxic "hot spots," among other provisions.

Supporter Carl Pursell (R-Mich.) said, "The nation is looking at us each day, looking at our recorded votes" on federal spending.

Opponent Robert Roe (D-N.J.) said the amendment "is not a freeze. This is cutting the program in half. Literally and figuratively in half."

Members voting yes wanted to freeze fiscal 1986 clean water spending at the 1985 level.

The House rejected, 167 for and 257 against, an amendment exempting up to 40 communities nationwide from federal clean water standards that govern pre-treatment of industrial discharges into public sewage systems. After selection by the Environmental Protection Agency, each of the 40 municipalities was to have conducted a five-year pilot program to show that locally set pre-treatment standards for industry can be preferable to rigid national standards.

The amendment was offered to the HR 8 (above).

Sponsor Arlan Stangeland (R-Minn.) said "locally developed programs can be every bit as effective as Washington's if not more so."

Opponent Bob Edgar (D-Pa.) said the exemption from federal standards could "pit city against city in an effort to attract industries by promising less stringent environmental regulations."